


Simjang Do

by celestial_lens



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Martial Arts, Minor Inanimate Object Death, Newbie!Eren, Platonic!ereri, Possible future romatic!ereri, blackbelt!Levi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 12:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5665870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celestial_lens/pseuds/celestial_lens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Master Levi had just two unbreakable rules: Respect the master by showing up on time, and respect yourself by “not showing up with goddamn wrinkles in your <em>dobok</em>.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Simjang Do

**Author's Note:**

> Really quickly, I just want to give a special thanks to [Ladycarathis](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladycarathis/pseuds/Ladycarathis) and [the-ugly-fic-ling](http://archiveofourown.org/users/the_ugly_fic_ling/pseuds/the_ugly_fic_ling). Ladycarathis is the first one who encouraged me to start writing for the fandom, so it's thanks to that encouragement that I am even here! The-ugly-fic-ling is my blessed muse and the one who suggested I write about what I know (namely, hitting things). If it weren't for her, I would still be stuck staring at an empty page.
> 
> Thank you, lovelies (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧  
> _________________________________________________  
> Edit: I completely forgot! For anyone who wants to chat about ereri, kicking things, general SNK, or a multitude of other things, feel free to chat me up on [my tumblr](celestial-lens.tumblr.com).

It was a 6:45pm when Eren pulled up in front of the gym. Slinging his bag over one shoulder, he hurried inside, hoping that he left himself enough time to change. Master Levi had just two unbreakable rules: Respect the master by showing up on time, and respect yourself by “not showing up with goddamn wrinkles in your _dobok_.” Eren grinned. Terrifying as Master Levi was in person, he couldn’t help but find his instructor’s penchant for pristinely ironed uniforms and neatly tied belts oddly humanizing. 

Taking a moment to make sure his ensemble was up to code, Eren padded down the hall to the fitness room that served as the school’s _dojang_. He bowed at the door and made his way to an open area of the room where he could stretch out, relieved that class had not begun yet. 

When the clock hit 7pm, Levi clapped his hands briskly to indicate the start of class. The students went to their lines. Black belts lined up along the right-hand side, varying ranks of colored belts filled in the center, and Eren and the other white belts shuffled into place on the far left.

“ _Cha ryuht! Choon bi_ …” At the master’s first command, the students snapped to attention, arms to their sides and feet together before easing into the ready stance as ordered. Eren focused his attention to the front, itching to skip past warm-ups and right into more advanced kicking drills.

“Alright, limp noodles. Let’s sweat.” Levi gave his students a dry smile.

Thirty minutes into class, even the more experienced students’ thighs were shaking from exertion. Eren was convinced that burpees were divine punishment for the sins of mankind. Jump squats were no better. When Master Levi called for a 30-second water break, he limped gratefully over to his water bottle and took a huge swig. 

“Oi, don’t go drinking the whole ocean. Sipping will hydrate you, but chugging will have you puking. I will kick you out if you start projectile vomiting all over my _dojang_ ,” Levi called over, frowning. 

“Oh. Sorry…” Eren turned red. Of course he would get called out for something stupid like not knowing how to drink water. Students were careful to hurry back from their water break to avoid the master’s wrath, and class resumed. Master Levi called up a black belt, an assistant instructor named Annie, and told her to run through drills of common kicks. 

Once Annie was installed at the front of the room, brusquely calling for the class to start with _ahp chagi_ –front kick, Eren remembered— on her count, Levi requisitioned a small kicking paddle and began to patrol the room. 

Eren watched from his periphery as the master meandered through the lines with a frown, straightening posture and correcting the positioning of toes as he went. At each person he stopped to correct, he held out the paddle for them to kick, re-correcting their errors until he was satisfied. 

Master Levi was not a particularly charismatic person in a traditional sense. He was short and densely muscled, with a face whose delicate features were set in a stern expression in a way that would have been almost comical if it were not so intimidating. His only notable charismatic power lay in the man’s ability to exude intimidation and authority. He only spoke when necessary, instead opting to guide by moving his students’ limbs and appendages into the proper positioning in his typical gruff manner. 

Master Levi was no teddy bear, but Eren couldn’t help but read into the way he stiffly lingered with each student until they grasped the lesson. He could see the master’s streak of fondness for the students, even if that was only revealed in the slight softening of his eyes each time a technique finally clicked for someone.

“…and switch stances again. _Bahl bah kwah_ …” called Annie. The class grunted their _kihaps_ in acknowledgement of the order, returning to their original positioning —left foot in front. “Let’s move on to _yup chagi_ , on my count again. _Hanah! Dool_ \- ”

Eren groaned as he threw out a wobbly kick. He could never tell the difference between the _yup_ and _dolrya chagi_. Both kicks ended with the leg extended to the front and the body facing to the side. Eren longed to skip ahead in time to when he could leave the boring basic kicks behind in favor of something more exciting, but for now he was stuck.

Having joined Master Levi’s school late in the session, he had missed the beginning instruction that had been given on the precise techniques of some of the kicks. With a few classes under his (depressingly white) belt, Eren felt like he had picked up on the essential movements, but with two kicks that seemed almost identical, hell if he knew the difference. 

Preoccupied as Eren was with his own incompetence, he didn’t notice that his feeble attempts had caught the attention of the master. With a particularly dour look, he quickly strode up the line, catching the oblivious Eren’s leg in mid-kick—or attempt at a kick, anyways—from behind him.

“What kick is the class working on.” It wasn’t phrased as a question.

Startled by Master Levi’s sudden appearance at his side, Eren waffled for a moment before realizing he’d been asked a question. “Uhhm… _Yup chagi_ , right?” 

“Correct. And what kick are you doing?”

“Ideally, also _yup chagi_ ,” Eren sighed. “Although I can never figure out the difference between that and _dolrya_.”

Levi raised an eyebrow surreptitiously. “At least your brain is better than your kicks.” And with that, he went to work. Still holding onto Eren’s leg, he firmly moved the limb into the proper position. A couple of times, he had Eren shift his posture or adjust his standing foot’s angle with a hop. Levi grasped the raised foot firmly and twisted it until the toes pointed downward, forcing Eren to rotate his hips parallel to his shoulders. Finally, he pushed Eren’s kicking foot so that it was flat and in a flexed position, patting it firmly a few times to emphasize the position.

“ _Yup chagi_. It’s called a side kick because you push out from your hip to the side. Got it?” Levi manipulated Eren’s leg to demonstrate the proper motion a few times, then held up the pad.

“Got it. Side kick from the side.” Eren threw a few kicks into the pad, with the master interjecting with an adjustment once or twice. When the instructor seemed satisfied, he caught Eren’s leg again.

“ _Dolrya chagi_ now. Remember, it means ‘roundhouse kick’. Side kick comes straight out from the side, a roundhouse goes around instead.” Levi swept his arm around in an arc as demonstration. Eren found his toes being pushed into a pointed position this time. Again, Master Levi manipulated his leg through the motions of the kick a few times before holding up the pad. 

This time, finally understanding what separated the two _chagi_ , Eren grinned as he kicked. He knew he had a long way to go, but his movements were already far more precise than before. Levi withdrew the pad with a nod, his eyes softening with satisfaction. Eren felt his chest warm with pleasure at Master Levi’s quiet acknowledgement of his improvement. 

The rest of the class went by without incident. Eren floundered his way through the more complex kicks, some of which were completely new to the white belts. After drills came _poomse_ , or forms. Students were divided up by rank, each group to be drilled by an instructor on their respective section of the _Tae Geuk_ form that they were learning. 

With another firm clap to indicate that students should return to their lines once more, Levi ran the class through a final cool-down before they bowed out for the night. 

“ _Cha ryuht, kyung nae_ …”, Levi ordered, and the students stood at attention and bowed to their master. 

“Turn to face the black belts,” Levi continued. “ _Cha ryuht_ …” 

The black belts turned at attention towards the rest of the class, who then mirrored their actions. 

“… _kyung nae_. Good work everyone.”

Black belts and lower belts bowed to each other, and then relaxed. With the class formally over, students mingled and talked freely, seeking out water bottles and sweat towels while groaning about how sore they’d be tomorrow. Eren took his time toweling off, waiting until the last of the students were trickling out the door before approaching the master.

“Uhm… Master Levi, can I ask you a question?”

Levi looked up over his reading glasses with a raised eyebrow. He was making notes on the class roster, but he set down his pen. “You can just call me Levi once class is out, Eren. What’s your question?”

“Oh, well, Ma- I mean… Levi, I was just wondering how far along you have to go to get good at the exciting stuff like 540 roundhouse and flying side kicks.” Eren began. “Like, everything else is all good, but I’m dying to learn all the cool advanced kicks like the ones you see martial arts demo teams do! I mean, you must get bored just going over the same basic kicks all the time, right?”

Eren blanched when Levi’s neutral expression took a turn for the terse. “Martial arts isn’t just about glamor or the ‘cool’ factor, Eren,” Levi reprimanded with a sigh. “How often do you really think you would win a fight with a trick kick like the 540?”

“I mean, none right now, clearly… but how could you not win a fight with a kick as powerful as a 540 roundhouse?” Eren asked, incredulous. 

Levi got up from the stool, resting his glasses beside the abandoned roster and pen. “And how do you suppose a demonstration-designed kick that has double the rotation of a traditional roundhouse kick would be efficient enough to have any noteworthy power?” Levi asked. “Between concentrating on landing properly, kicking at the appropriate height —which few people can accomplish with a 540 without under- or over-rotating— where would you fit in power as a priority?”

That had definitely never occurred to Eren. His first exposure to martial arts was a demo team he found on YouTube. Combining the precision of the team, their pulse-raising accompanying music, and the showy nature of their kicks, their presentation of taekwondo was mesmerizing. Somewhere during his third time in a row marathoning the channel’s videos, Eren made up his mind that he needed to find a local school and learn how to kick like that.

“But…they always break boards in demo videos with the 540.” Eren offered half-heartedly. “Wouldn’t that be proof that they have good kicking power?”

Levi’s lips quirked up as he snorted. “Let me show you what they were breaking.” He walked over to a storage cabinet, slide open the door, and pulled out a board. He held it up for Eren to see the thickness. “ _This_ is a board that a demo team would break. It’s just 8mm thick, and its purpose is to prove that contact was made-” Here Levi paused, flicking the center of the board soundly with his finger, causing the bottom half to break off with a snap before clattering to the ground.

“-and as you can see,” he continued, “it takes pretty much nothing to break it into pieces, so it doesn’t provide insight into anything but the accuracy of a strike. A typical board for testing breaks is three times as thick, and even that is often used with two or three boards held together for higher ranks.”

“Which is why we keep these around…” He bent down to pull something else out of the cabinet.

Eren swallowed hard. With a foreboding scrape of stone against wood, he watched as the master drew out a hefty piece of cement, eyes glinting dangerously. _That block has to be at least 2 or 3 inches thick of solid cement_ , Eren thought incredulously. 

“Something tells me you’re not going to be flicking that,” Eren joked weakly.

Wordlessly, Levi pulled over his abandoned stool. Angling it so that the opposite broad side of the cement block was facing into empty space, he set the piece of cement onto the stool on its narrowest edge. He looked over at Eren, who could only stare back at him.

“Eren, I want you to watch closely. Spins and jumps may impress the inexperienced fighter, but this is the true potential of taekwondo.” Levi’s eyes met Eren’s with a look that was deadly serious. “Speed and power are what hold your life in the balance in a real fight.” 

Eren didn’t know how the master knew that with such confidence, but there was no doubt in his mind that Levi’s knowledge was of the variety that was learned the hard way. 

Focusing back what the master was doing, Eren’s jaw dropped. “You’re going to kick it?!” Levi was busy lining up his _yup chagi_ with the center of the precariously-balanced cement, apparently unphased by his student’s incredulity.

“Oi, I said watch, not narrate.”

And without warning, Levi’s leg shot out like a coiled snake, his heel hitting its mark dead center faster than Eren’s eyes could follow. Cement chunks clattered across the stool, raining onto the floor with a series of dull thuds.

Silence.

Levi leisurely stooped down to pick up a few of the bigger slabs of cement, setting them on the table before retrieving the broom and dustpan.

“Holy _fuck_.”

“Get it now?” Levi asked, clearly satisfied by his student’s reaction to the lesson.

Eren nodded, taking the offered dustpan. The two cleaned in silence, lost in their own thoughts. Once the floor was cleared of any debris, he retrieved his gym bag from the back of the room. He paused by the door, turning back towards the master. 

“Thanks. Really. I had no idea…” Eren trailed off. He knew he would always remember this as the day he chose to become a martial artist, and he had no clue how to begin putting that thought into words.

Levi’s eyes softened, watching the spark of a newfound passion blossom in his student’s eyes. “You are very welcome, Eren.”

**Author's Note:**

> In case you get curious, here are a few relevant links for the stuff I talked about~
> 
> Here's [a comprehensive list](http://www.martialartsresource.com/korean/TKD.list.htm) of taekwondo (and some general Korean) vocabulary. So exciting, I know.
> 
> The taekwondo demo team[ K-Tigers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IYO5ljGr2o) is what first introduced Eren to the martial art. If you have a couple minutes, I highly recommend checking them out. They _kick_ ass! (Pun intended)
> 
> In case you want to see[ an actual video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDvXnn8Stg0) of the cement break Levi does. (Spoiler: It's legit as fuck)  
> ___________________________
> 
> If you've read this far, **thank you!!** I'm so excited to share my first fan fiction with you all. :D  
>  If you have a minute, please let me know what you thought with some love/constructive criticism in the comments. Feel free to call me out on any typos or other errors, since I'm sure there's at least one I managed to miss.


End file.
